Tradies do not go broke because they have no work. They go broke because they did the work and the money arrived two months later, or did not. Getting paid on time is not about chasing harder. It is about setting things up so that paying you on time is the easy thing for the customer to do. That starts before the job, at the quote.
Set the terms in the quote
The quote is where the customer agrees to how they will pay. If payment terms are first mentioned on the invoice, the customer has already agreed to a price with no terms, and in their mind that means pay when convenient.
In the note under the quote: deposit if any and when; progress payments if the job runs more than a week; final payment on completion; how to pay. Payment on completion means on the day, not thirty days later. Say it in those words. Quote Desk does not take payments, so the note is where this lives, and the customer accepts it with the price.
Take a deposit on anything with materials
If you are buying materials, the customer pays for them before you do. Ten to thirty per cent on acceptance is normal and no reasonable customer objects. A deposit does two things: it funds the materials, and it confirms the customer is serious. A customer who will not pay a deposit is a customer who will be slow at the end.
Make the deposit due on acceptance, and start the job when it lands, not when they say it is coming.
Progress payments on long jobs
A two-week job is paid at the end of week one and the end of week two. A deck is paid at frame stage and completion. Break any job over about a week into stages and name them in the quote. The customer pays smaller amounts more often, which is easier for them, and you are never more than a stage out of pocket, which is easier for you.
Invoice the day you finish
The single biggest cause of late payment is late invoicing. The job finishes Friday, the invoice goes out the following Thursday, the customer pays thirty days after that. Invoice on site, before you leave, from your phone. The customer is standing in front of the finished work and feeling good about it. That is the moment.
If your invoice matches the accepted quote line for line, plus any accepted variations, there is nothing to query. The accepted quotes in Quote Desk are your invoice checklist: every line already agreed, every variation already accepted, every date recorded.
Make paying easy
Bank details on every invoice. A card option if you can; the fee is cheaper than a late payment. A payment link if your accounting software does them. The fewer steps between reading the invoice and the money leaving their account, the faster it moves.
Short terms, stated plainly
Due on completion for residential work. Seven days if you must. Thirty days is a business-to-business convention and has no place on a homeowner's bathroom. Write the due date as a date, not as a number of days: due Friday 14 November.
The first reminder is friendly and fast
The day after the due date, one message: invoice was due yesterday, here it is again, let me know if there is a problem. Most late payments are forgotten, not refused, and this message collects most of them. Do not wait a week to send it; waiting teaches the customer that the due date was not real.
The second reminder has a consequence
A week later: the invoice is now a week overdue, please pay by this date. If you charge interest or a late fee and it was in your terms, say it applies from that date. If it was not in your terms, you cannot add it now, which is one more reason to put it in the quote.
Then the phone
An overdue invoice at two weeks is a phone call, not another email. Calm, specific, asking when the payment will be made. Get a date. Write it down. If the date passes, call again.
When it is a dispute, not a delay
Sometimes the customer is not paying because they are unhappy. Find out early. Ask what the problem is, in writing, and deal with it. A customer with a real complaint who is listened to usually pays. The accepted quote and the variations are your evidence of what was agreed; the before and after photos are your evidence of what was done.
When it is just not coming
Every state has a small claims path for debts of this size, and a letter saying you intend to use it concentrates minds. Before that, ask yourself whether the signs were there at the quote. Usually they were. The customer who argued the deposit, questioned the call-out fee and wanted a discount for cash was telling you.
The habits, in order
- Payment terms in the note of every quote, accepted with the price.
- Deposit on acceptance for anything with materials.
- Progress payments on anything over a week.
- Invoice on site, the day you finish, matching the accepted quotes.
- Due date as a date. Reminder the next day. Consequence a week later. Phone at two weeks.
None of this is chasing harder. It is making paying on time the path of least resistance. Most customers take it.